Woman Bested World's No. 1 Professional Eater

Sonya Thomas of Alexandria, Virginia consumed 4.86 lbs. of chicken wings to win the eating contest over Joey Chestnut of San Jose, California who devoured a total of 4.55 lbs. The latter is the current titleholder and touted as the No. 1 professional eater in America.

Buffalo is known to be the birthplace of the chicken wing contest in the U.S. located northwest of New York. During the contest, the participants were allowed to fried chicken wings which was covered with hot sauce and tangy vinegar as much as they could.

The founder of the festival, Drew Cerza said that it was the first time that Thomas and Chestnut squared off neck and neck during the chicken wing eating contest. He explained that he founded this event with inspiration from Bill Murray's comedy about a compulsive eater in "Osmosis Jones."

In an interview after the contest, Cerza said that the two really push hard against each other. Chestnut, who was most favored to win the contest, used his strong jaw but he was outwitted by Sonya's fast hand. Chestnut ate a total of 169 chicken wings (4.55 lbs) while Thomas with 181 (4.86 lbs) to set a new world record.

In 2005, Thomas set a world record of 174 chicken wings eaten in 12 minutes. The same record was broken when she devoured a total of 181 in 12 minutes. She calls herself the Black Widow because she always win contests over larger male contestants. Thomas stood five feet tall weighing 105 lbs. while Chestnut stood at six-foot-two weighing 230 lbs.

Thomas won her first eating competition in 2003 and also set records for eating hard-boiled eggs, cheesecake, jalapeno peppers, and oysters. She claimed that she won the contest because of her fancy fingers. She said that she used her hands more than her mouth because when she started chewing too much it slowed her down.

It was indeed effective! While she quickly teared off the meat using her teeth and lips, she also twirled the wings with her small fingers. After eating, her cheeks were shrouded with orange Buffalo sauce to the delight of the thousand spectators who witnessed the public contest. Thomas said that she felt hungry still saying that the wings were just an "appetizer" to her.

She ate 20 more wings when she guested at the Ridiculously Hot Buffalo Wing Eating Contest. She said it was the hottest wings and she had to drink a lot of water.